By keef & annie, Jul 29 2013 08:05AM

NOTTS->FIELD BARN FARM, CLAPTON ON THE HILL,COTSWOLDS->NOTTS 183 miles

A weekend of mixed weather, incredibly hot Friday and ½ of Saturday but some serious rain in the afternoon and overnight. T’was a case of opening and closing the windows and fly screens ad nauseam.

Had a lovely relaxing weekend away with our pals Pete & Joy on our yearly camping trip with them , this year in the Cotswolds near Bourton on the Water. And the first year neither of us were under canvas as they now have a lovely Bessacar motorhome.

The field barn farm site is an interesting one of mixed pros and cons. The very roomy grassed pitches with wild flower hedges are perfect for a lovely relaxing time, the setting in a dip near the wind rush valley is also perfect but the long hike to the excellent amenities block, poor water taps and unclear waste disposal sites a bit of a problem, still it was a lovely weekend.

Did a BBQ of garlic chicken, sausages, salad etc on Friday evening – stuffed accompanied by the odd beer and wine, very nice too.

The walk down the hill into the lovely Bourton on the water on Saturday , although a little strenuous on my failing knees was a lovely one and the village beamed with Cotswold charm and was packed with families picnicking and paddling by the river. Fish & chips, merriment, ice creams and the lovely Charles Wells Duke of Wellington pub made for a really enjoyable ½ day.

Sunday was spent dodging showers, chatting, reading and packing up the vans. Then after a slight direction malfunction we had a nice Sunday dinner at the Lamb, Great Rissington before heading our separate ways.

Thanks Pete & Joy for another fab weekend away, here’s to many more!

We loved the area so will be back again soon, we hope. Anyone else been there and want to share their views on the campsite or the area?

Note: The Index shows ALL blogs already published or you can find Blogs about a specific subject by clicking on a word in the TAG CLOUD, thanks, motorhome-travels.

By keef & annie, Jun 14 2013 07:49AM

Rutland Water, Rutland

Motorhome trip No9 : June 3rd – June 6th 2013

NOTTS->GREENDALE FARM SITE, WHISSENDINE, RUTLAND->NOTTS 110 miles

We went away with Brian & Gina, Annie’s brother, for a few days to the lovely Rutland Water area. The weather forecast was fine and we did get 2 days of very good weather. Brian & Gina were travelling back down from Leeds having had their vans hab check. An essential each year for all motorhomers!

We visited the wonderful working Whissendine windmill where Nigel Moon the miller and his 90+ year old mum still produce flour. We even bought some, well worth a visit.

We also spent a very sunny afternoon wandering through Oakham, a lovely town with buttercross and castle, plus a whole stack of churches and then onto the fabulous Barnsdale gardens , owned by Geoff Hamilton of BBC’s Gardeners world fame, so sad that he passed away so early but his legacy of gardens is well worth a visit. In late eve we went and had a stroll around Hambleton village in the middle (-ish) of Rutland water. Meeting the local trout fly fisherman on route.

Rutland water is especially good for picnics assuming you don’t mind sharing your lunch with the ducks, they are mighty persistent *smile* oh and they now have public Barbie stands to use.

We also visited the lovely town of Stamford, Britain’s best stone town (claim and to be believed) , take a stroll around its many churches and along the river welland but don’t forget Barn Hill where Charles 1’s spent his last night as a free man…. Hey my neck is really itchy!

Greendale farm site has some lovely views and is small and compact with sadly only one loo / sink and shower for the 11 pitches. The pool despite the advertising was never open and the weather for a change was good enough oh and the camp site owners are a little too intrusive and rule conscious for our liking. We will not return! It was part of the “tranquil site” mag and it was mostly that so we will try some other ones.

Thanks again to Brian & Gina for a lovely few days.

We loved the area so will be back again soon, we hope. Anyone else been there and want to share their views on the campsite or the area?

Note: The Index shows ALL blogs already published or you can find Blogs about a specific subject by clicking on a word in the TAG CLOUD, thanks, motorhome-travels.

By keef & annie, May 18 2013 06:25PM

Malvern Hills, Worcestershire

Motorhome trip No8 : May 14th – May 17th 2013

NOTTS->BLACKMORE CAMPSITE, HANLEY SWAN->NOTTS 180 miles

Our first trip away in the campervan of 2013.

What a fabulous area of the country and apart from Great Malvern not an area we have ever been to before. Stayed at the Caravan Club site called Blackmore at Hanley Swan , Worcestershire. This site has a twinned Camping & Caravan Club site and a Girl Guides site all with great views of the Malvern Hills. We were on pitch 140, hard standing but there are lots of pitches that are grass as well. It is a very big site as 4 or 5 times a year caters for visitors to the Malvern Show Ground which is only 2.5 miles away. The days we were there people were prepping for the Quilt show.

We stayed for 3 nights and visited Worcester, Great Malvern, Hanley Swan and the fabulous Upton-upon-Severn. The 363 bus conveniently stops outside the site going to Worcester in one direction (£3 return fare) and Upton (£2 return fare) in the opposite direction. To get to Great Malvern and the hills by bus suggest walking about a mile to the crossroads at Hanley Swan and catching the 42 bus (£2 return fare) although you can catch the 43 bus at Upton to save the walk but it was so pleasant with great views.

After 3 months away in the southern hemisphere it was great to see some really old English traditional towns. Worcester’s Friar Street and Art Gallery / Museum are well worth a visit and the Tudor house (free). The oldest pub in Great Malvern the Unicorn offers fab food and a lot of it as well as some very interesting and unusual real ales. Remember Malvern is quite steep as built on the hill side. Upton is just great with 17 pubs and some lovely little quirky shops and medieval architecture plus the great views from the river side. It also holds one of the biggest free Blues weekends in the UK. Step aside Glastonbury!

We had 1 free night voucher kindly given to us by our dear friends Pete & Joy for Xmas plus as a mid week booking pitch prices were half price, so all in all good value. The wethaer was mixed but considering the forecast said rain all 4 days that was a real bonus.

We loved the area so will be back again soon, we hope. Anyone else been there and want to share their views on the campsite or the area?

Note: The Index shows ALL blogs already published or you can find Blogs about a specific subject by clicking on a word in the TAG CLOUD, thanks, motorhome-travels.

By keef & annie, Apr 30 2013 03:20PM

We have been lucky enough to spend 3 months away recently firstly in Malaysia where our youngest son got married which included KL, Langkawi , Georgetown (Penang) and latterly Melaka, then hired a Britz Mercedes Sprinter 313 Motorhome for a month to travel around the top half of North Island New Zealand We spent 4 months seeing North & South island of this lovely country back in 2007/8.

We then travelled the Nullabor plain from east to west in Australia, again in a Britz Sprinter van but this time with a built in external gas BBQ, bliss! Oz also included Sydney, Tassie, Adelaide, Perth and Geraldton.

Including our previous trips to OZ we have now travelled around the outside from Cooktown (QLD) to Geraldton (WA) plus Broome, Kunnarra, Darwin and thru the middle on the Ghan including Alice & Uluru.

We heart Oz & Nz. We finished our trip with 2 weeks in lovely Singapore. If we tot up the miles / kilometres we drove on this trip we can say we drove the equivalent of the distaqnce from London to Tashkent (Uzbekistan)...

It is nice being back in the UK to our own little Motorhome with a whole host of new exciting trips to look forward to.

If you wish to see pictures of this trip chose our dedicated website for all slideshows & photos. It will hopefully work on all tablets and mobile phones .Thanks for looking.

By keef & annie, Jan 20 2013 11:36AM

So glad we invested in the breathable cover. See earlier article for further details

One extra tip. If its gonna be a long harsh winter, which alas it probably is with snow, is to ensure that there is charge to your engine battery. We have the van plugged into the garage with a timer, set for a few hours each week just to give a trickle charge to the engine battery, with the internal switch set to engine rather than habitation as one would when in normal mode at a camp site.

Hope the tip helps.

Have a safe and secure winter.... best wishes from motorhome-travels blog!

Additional thoughts...remove any curtains they can mould, bring them indoors and ensure all security systems are fitted. We left the power to the engine on via the garage at 6hours once a week, enough to keep the engine ticking over, oh and rolled the van back and forth monthly to stop the tyres from getting excessive weight in one place. Hope it helps.

By keef & annie, Nov 26 2012 11:32PM

Here are some of the nice motorhomes we came across on our travels this year. As it is well and truly 'hibernation' time for our lovely little van thought it would be nice to reflect on some of the summery highlights as the days shorten to black.

If you want to see many,many more of the motorhomes, campervans and RVs we like why not take a look at our pinboard called Camping/Motorhomes

We currently have 481 pins/ images of lovely motorhomes, modern, old and damn right quirky. Please let us know which you like, those you don't and why and feel free to share links or images of motorhomes, campervans, RVs that you like or indeed are lucky enough to own.

JOIN THE BLOG - by leaving your comments here against any blog you read, that way we can all learn more about the wonderful world of Motorhome Travels!

By keef & annie, Nov 5 2012 01:59PM

Winterisation (is that a word really?!)

Motorhome put to bed now for 2012 especially as the ice is drawing in.

There are some pictures of the van all packed up and covered for WINTER 2012 available under the site photos and slideshow tabs. In order to see these it is necessary to login using either your Facebook login / password or set yourself up one for our site, which will mean supplying your email address and accepting the automatic link that is sent to your inbox. EASY

Luckily after our last trip away we happened to find a mega car wash on the Ashbourne road just outside Derby which had the facilities, staff and equipment to wash the motorhome. Only £15, a good deal for over 30mins of work. It looked immaculate! Plus it brought up shine again after the yacht waxing I’d spent all those hours doing during the year on the monocoche shell and the cabin waxing.

After we had driven it home, we took all the bedding, food cans etc etc out and stored them inside the house, well actually the food will obviously be well and truly eaten by next season.

I open all water taps up fully , inside and out, including the hot water pump inside to drain out ALL (hopefully) the water. LEAVE THEM OPEN ALL WINTER. I then took off all taps inside. Be careful so as not to damage the threading. I then used the pump to blow out any remaining water in the pipe work and it was surprising how much there is even though the outside taps had stopped draining.

We also made sure that the fridge was off and cleaned out, including any ice remnants in the freezer box. Put the plug in the sink to stop bad smells (if any). Connected up the electrics with an RCD / timer and wire cover into the garage and the engine switch on to allow a weekly charge just to ensure the engine battery doesn’t flatten over Winter, and probably more importantly turn off the Cat 1 alarm system.

I also put all manner of security locks on, 2 on the tyres, one on the steering column etc etc. We will shift it a few times over the Winterisation period just to ensure the rubber on the tyres doesn’t sit in the same position for too many weeks / months.

Finally we put the breathable cover completely over the van. Note this is not an easy task even for 2 with ladders, and brooms. Suggestion: Maybe get a few friends around to help.

Anyway that’s it. It is our first winter with the van so we will no doubt learn and let you know what we discover good and/ or bad.

Anyone else care to share what they have done to winterise their van or plan to do if anything. Is it a good idea or a waste of time? Have your say here in the comments under this blog. Let’s get a discussion going.

Note: The Index shows ALL blogs already published or you can find Blogs about a specific subject by clicking on a word in the TAG CLOUD, thanks, motorhome-travels.

By keef & annie, Oct 16 2012 01:51PM

Blackwall Plantation ,Carsington Water, Derbyshire

Motorhome trip No7 : Oct10th – 12th Oct 2012

NOTTS->CARSINGTON WATER->NOTTS 60 miles

We had 2 free pitch night vouchers kindly given to us by the Caravan Club (CC) after an issue at one of our earlier Scottish site. So we decided to head off to the Blackwall Plantation CC site for a few days R&R. It is not that far from our home and we haven’t been to Carsington Water for many a year so it seemed an ideal choice, plus we had arranged to meet up with our pals Pete & Wendy in the Barley Mow @ Kirk Ireton on the Wednesday evening. One of the world’s best pubs. Everything about is is pre 1900 including the staff. The pub itself is 1600s. The beers (all great real ales) are only available straight from the barrels which are propped up behind the bar. HEAVEN for a Camra geek.

Like camping in a pine forest Blackwall plantation is a lovely site. We will revisit for longer next time.

Our pitch no 12 had a view through the trees of Carsington water. We had 1 ½ good days weather and did the walk around the site via the outer path which takes about 40 mins and good views high up of Carsington on the front side. In the evening the walk out of the site back gate is only about 1.1 miles to Kirk Ireton but if you go for a pint or 3 in the eve be sure to take a torch as it’s a very narrow set of roads and very dark and the locals drive really fast down these back roads. Be warned!

On the Thursday we did a 5 mile walk via Millfield car park around the Water to the visitor centre and back. The views are spectacular and tranquil. As you walk across the Dam wall you have Debyshire hills and undulating countryside on one side and Carsington water on the other side.

Oh and we had a nice coffee and cake in the visitors centre café , the mainsail haha!

So all in all a lovely mid week break, very relaxing , quiet and great scenery and beers!

Anyone else been there and want to share there views on the campsite or the area?